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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The upstream oil sector is also commonly known as the exploration and production (E&P) sector.

The upstream sector includes the searching for potential underground or underwater crude oil and natural gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently drilling and operating the wells that recover and bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface.

With the development of methods for extracting methane from coal seams, there has been a significant shift toward including unconventional gas as a part of the upstream sector, and corresponding developments in liquified natural gas (LNG) processing and transport.

The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, barge, or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crude or refined petroleum products. Pipelines and other transport systems can be used to move crude oil from production sites to refineries and deliver the various refined products to downstream distributors. Natural gas pipeline networks aggregate gas from natural gas purification plants and deliver it to downstream customers, such as local utilities.

The midstream operations are often taken to include some elements of the upstream and downstream sectors. For example, the midstream sector may include natural gas processing plants which purify the raw natural gas as well as removing and producing elemental sulfur and natural gas liquids (NGL) as finished end-products.

The downstream sector commonly refers to the refining of petroleum crude oil and the processing and purifying of raw natural gas, as well as the marketing and distribution of products derived from crude oil and natural gas. The downstream sector touches consumers through products such as gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil, heating oil, fuel oils, lubricants, waxes, asphalt, natural gas, and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as well as hundreds of petrochemicals.

Midstream operations are often included in the downstream category and considered to be a part of the downstream sector.

Energy is not an option. Fossil fuels supply over 86% of the world's energy. An abundant supply of oil and natural gas remains vital in helping us and the industrialized countries of the world maintain and establish a way of life.

Gasoline-is a transparent, petroleum-derived oil that is used primarily as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain ethanol as an alternative fuel. In North America, the term gasoline is often shortened in colloquial usage to gas, while petrol is the common name in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Australia and in most of the other Commonwealth countries. Under normal conditions, its physical state is a liquid, unlike liquefied petroleum gas ornatural gas.

Fuel Oil- is afractionobtained frompetroleumdistillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in afurnaceorboiler for the generation of heat or used in anenginefor the generation of power, except oils having aflash pointof approximately40 °C(104 °F)and oils burned in cotton or wool-wick burners. In this sense,dieselis a type of fuel oil. Fuel oil is made of longhydrocarbonchains, particularlyalkanes,cycloalkanesandaromatics. The termfuel oilis also used in a stricter sense to refer only to the heaviest commercial fuel that can be obtained fromcrude oili.e. heavier thangasolineandnaphtha.

Jet Fuel- or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial aviation are Jet A and Jet A-1 which are produced to a standardized international specification. The only other jet fuel commonly used in civilian turbine-engine powered aviation is Jet B which is used for its enhanced cold-weather performance.

Jet fuel is a mixture of a large number of different hydrocarbons. The range of their sizes (molecular weights or carbon numbers) is restricted by the requirements for the product, for example, the freezing point or smoke point. Kerosene-type jet fuel (including Jet A and Jet A-1) has a carbon number distribution between about 8 and 16 (carbon atoms per molecule); wide-cut or naphtha-type jet fuel (including Jet B), between about 5 and 15.

Asphalt- is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product; it is a substance classed as a pitch. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used.[5]

The primary use of asphalt/bitumen is in road construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are forbituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs.

The terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance. In American English, asphalt (or asphalt cement) is the carefully refined residue from the distillation process of selected crude oils. Outside the United States, the product is often called bitumen. Geological terminology often prefers the term bitumen. Common usage often refers to various forms of asphalt/bitumen as "tar", such as at the La Brea Tar Pits. Another term, mostly archaic, refers to asphalt/bitumen as "pitch". The pitch used in this mixture is sometimes found in natural deposits but usually made by the distillation of crude oil.

Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen is sometimes specified by the term "crude bitumen". Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses while the material obtained from the fractional distillation of crude oil [boiling at 525 °C(977 °F)] is sometimes referred to as "refined bitumen".

Kerosene- is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek: κηρός(keros) meaning wax. The word "Kerosene" was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854, and for several years, only the North American Gas Light Company and the Downer Company (to which Gesner had granted the right) were allowed to call their lamp oil "Kerosene" in the United States. It eventually became a genericized trademark. It is sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage. The term "kerosene" is usual in much of Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Keroseneis usually called paraffin in the UK, Ireland, Southeast Asia and South Africa. A more viscous paraffin oil is used as a laxative. A waxy solid extracted from petroleum is called paraffin wax. Kerosene is widely used to power jet engines of aircraft (jet fuel) and some rocket engines, but is also commonly used as a cooking and lighting fuel and for fire toys such as poi. In parts of Asia, where the price of kerosene is subsidized, it fuels outboard motors on small fishing boats.

Kerosene lamps are widely used for lighting in rural areas of Asia and Africa where electrical distribution is not available or too costly for widespread use. Total kerosene consumption is equivalent to about 1.2 million barrels per day.

Kerosene in some jurisdictions such as the U.S. is legally required to be stored in a blue container to avoid it being confused with the much more flammable gasoline, which is typically kept in a red container. In other jurisdictions, like many in Europe, there are no specific requirements for the storage of kerosene other than the container has to be closed and marked with its contents.

Lubricants such as 2-cycle oil are added to fuels like gasoline which has low lubricity. Sulfur impurities in fuels also provide some lubrication properties, which has to be taken in account when switching to a low-sulfur diesel; biodiesel is a popular diesel fuel additive providing additional lubricity.

Non-liquid lubricants include grease, powders (dry graphite, PTFE, Molybdenum disulfide, tungsten disulfide, etc.), PTFE tape used in plumbing, air cushion and others. Dry lubricants such as graphite, molybdenum disulfide and tungsten disulfide also offer lubrication at temperatures (up to 350 °C) higher than liquid and oil-based lubricants are able to operate. Limited interest has been shown in low friction properties of compacted oxide glaze layers formed at several hundred degrees Celsius in metallic sliding systems, however, practical use is still many years away due to their physically unstable nature.

Another approach to reducing friction and wear is to use bearings such as ball bearings, roller bearings or air bearings, which in turn require internal lubrication themselves, or to use sound, in the case of acoustic lubrication.

In addition to industrial applications, lubricants are used for many other purposes. Other uses include cooking (oils and fats in use infrying pans, in baking to prevent food sticking), bio-medical applications on humans (e.g. lubricants for artificial joints), ultrasound examination, internal examinations for males and females, and the use of personal lubricant for sexual purposes.

Petrochemicals- are chemical products derived from petroleum. Somechemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane.

The two most common petrochemical classes are olefins (including ethyleneand propylene) and aromatics (including benzene, toluene and xyleneisomers). Oil refineries produce olefins and aromatics by fluid catalytic cracking of petroleum fractions. Chemical plants produce olefins by steam cracking of natural gas liquids like ethane and propane. Aromatics are produced by catalytic reforming of naphtha. Olefins and aromatics are the building-blocks for a wide range of materials such as solvents, detergents, andadhesives. Olefins are the basis for polymers and oligomers used in plastics,resins, fibers, elastomers, lubricants, and gels.[1][2]

Global ethylene and propylene production are ~115 million tonnes and ~70 million tonnes per annum, respectively. Aromatics production is ~70 million tonnes. The largest petrochemical industries are located in the USA and Western Europe; however, major growth in new production capacity is in the Middle East and Asia. There is substantial inter-regional petrochemical trade.

Primary petrochemicals are divided into three groups depending on their chemical structure:

Olefins includes ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. Ethylene and propylene are important sources of industrial chemicals andplastics products. Butadiene is used in making synthetic rubber.

Aromatics includes benzene, toluene, and xylenes. Benzene is a raw material for dyes and synthetic detergents, and benzene and toluene for isocyanates MDI and TDI used in making polyurethanes. Manufacturers use xylenes to produce plastics and synthetic fibers.

Synthesis gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen used to make ammonia and methanol. Ammonia is used to make thefertilizer urea and methanol is used as a solvent and chemical intermediate.

The prefix "petro-" is an arbitrary abbreviation of the word "petroleum"; since "petro-" is Ancient Greek for "rock" and "oleum" means "oil". Therefore, the etymologically correct term would be "oleochemicals". However, the term oleochemical is used to describe chemicals derived from plant and animal fats.